I remember a feature in Discovery Channel many years ago on the idea of downloading everything from a person’s mind – knowledge, memories, language, emotions, etc. – and uploading it to a supercomputer that controls a robot. This robot would then act and interact based on the whole personality of the borrowed mind, and it would keep on doing so even after the person is long dead, rendering him/her immortal.

Unfortunately, this attempt at immortality would only benefit the surviving family, friends, and colleagues because as far as the person is concerned, he/she has already ceased to exist and cannot experience or enjoy this “life” the robot is living.

Moreover, having one’s mind “transfered” to a robot’s electronic brain isn’t really very much different from distilling one’s thoughts into literature. Great minds from decades and even centuries ago continue to speak to the living and influence millions. Sure, a robot is cool, and Shakespeare might still be writing plays today if his mind was backed up in a supercomputer, but until such time that the technology becomes available, the written word is the closest one can get to immortality.

So to those who don’t believe in an afterlife, if you post your articles here at Filipino Freethinkers a part of you will become frozen in time, to be read, shared and discussed by future generations of freethinkers. By then this site might be run by Ryan’s great-great-great-grandchildren or by an FF Foundation – or by the CBCP, heaven forbid! – but as long as it exists, so will the authors, in a way.

And with this we are inviting everyone to submit articles on freethought – essays, stories, even poems.

Write up guys, and become immortal! :)

As I was seeking for answers and looking for truths regarding life, I was disappointed and dismayed when I learned that some ‘truths’ are only illusions. I learned that each and every one of us has his/her own ‘truths’ which, if anyone dares to argue with, it would be a long and tiring argument for sure.

So let me tell you my story on why I became an atheist. This is my JOURNEY TO PARADISE.

I was born in a Christian family, in an environment among what they call the ‘righteous’ and the ‘chosen ones’. But I am an individual, unique, and I have my own thoughts to follow. I realized that I don’t have to follow my family’s traditions and beliefs.

For 12 years I was in a Catholic environment because my family is a devotee of Catholicism. But by the time I was able to understand this religion and belief thing, I started questioning every little detail on why people follow such traditions like the rituals done during Holy Week, the baptism of babies, the signing of the cross, the feast of the patron saints, etc., which are actually prohibited in the Bible, as far as I know.

But instead of answering my questions they just ignored me, so I started seeking for answers. A friend of mine in high school told me that if I wanted to seek for answers to my questions regarding religion and belief, I must read the Bible. And so I did. But instead of giving me answers it created more questions, until one day a neighbor came and preached about the gospel and the “Word of God” to me. She earnestly answered each and every question I had, and although I was a little skeptical of her answers, I accepted them. And because of my eagerness to really have the answers, I decided to become a born again Christian and to study more about the Word of God.

For two years I studied and adopted the beliefs of this sect I was in. I became “The Bible Man” in my family. Sometimes I argued with my mom with regards to what the Bible says about those who don’t follow what God had commanded. But that was until I realized that I was being a freak of this Jesus and his teachings.

I could no longer accept some of the lessons in science, sociology, and philosophy that I encountered in school because of this “have faith and never doubt” thing that I learned in the Bible. Fortunately, I realized I was being illogical and unreasonable at times. I realized that “truth is never told but realized”. And so I renounced my Christian faith and beliefs to grasp freethought for me to gain the real knowledge of life and the most logical and reasonable position that man can ever be.

Christianity had been my hindrance to progress and to knowing the reality and every answer to my questions. I may not know everything in life yet but what I know for sure is that there will be answers in the future. For everything here is explainable by science and logic – maybe not yet now but sooner or later we’ll have every answer that we longed to know and waited for so long. I may no longer be alive at that time, but I’m living right now for that future to come.

I no longer believe in any deity or supernatural things now that I have realized that it’s absurd to believe in such things that have no proofs of their existence. I live my life the way I want it, free from falsehood and absurdities.

But It doesn’t mean that I live a life of nothingness just because I don’t believe in a Sky-Daddy and didn’t follow what my family has taught me. I have my own thoughts and views regarding things, so no one can say I am a lifeless being. Every individual is as unique as his/her beliefs and so we can’t just say to anyone that he/she is wrong for what he/she believes, for we don’t know yet what is true.

And so if I say that God does not exist, you can’t say I am wrong just because you have things that “prove” your claim that God exists. No, God’s existence has been the long time argument of theists and atheists and yet no one has ever proven anything of it’s existence or non-existence. So I may be an agnostic as far as my position is concerned because I don’t know anything yet. But if God exists or not, I don’t care. At the least I know what I’m doing and what I’m supposed to do.

I am an Atheist. It has been one heck of a journey for me indeed. I may not have written all of it here, but this is the best thing that happened in my journey. And though my journey is not yet over, I’ll live for it now, to finish what I started, on this Journey to Paradise.

I’ve been talking more often to a friend who works in a Christian organization.  She is born and raised Catholic, but is the typical ‘seasonal’ Catholic – she only attends mass occasionally (during special occasions, or whenever she feels like it).  She works in a company dominated by members of Christian sects (e.g. Baptist, Born Again Christians).

Her job application involved her writing an essay about her relationship with God, which she had to elaborate on during her job interview.  On a daily basis, she is required to attend daily devotions, prayers before and after meetings.  She organizes and attends mandatory retreats and full-day prayer sessions on special occasions.  She is also surrounded by employees who like to quote the Bible and call each other ‘sis’ and ‘bro’.  She has been asked, on occasion, to lead spontaneous prayers, share her reflections, participate in group sharing.  It’s like a full-day Jesus party where she works.

As is to be expected from a person who has a brain and thinks for herself, this environment did not suit her.  Unlike other organizations where prayer (even when organized by the company) is optional, her workplace requires attendance to all religious activities, and non-attendance has negative consequences on job evaluation.  She has been reprimanded for being unaware of the negative influence of certain activities one would think was harmless (e.g. yoga).  As a person in charge of recruitment, she has been asked to reject ‘unqualified’ candidates (specifically, candidates that are not Christian enough, such as Mormons, or immoral candidates, such as people who look like they are homosexuals).  She hides who she really is – a funny, vibrant, person who curses and says dirty jokes- because this will lead to reprimands, which may include additional prayer reflections, being prayed over, or being thought of as a sinful, bad influence.

What is even worse than working in a company whose leadership is very, very prayerful is that the same religious, bible-thumping people are hypocritical, nepotistic employers.  My friend has been working for weeks outside of her initial contract based on false promises of further employment.  “We offer you spiritual growth in addition to a good career,” they said.  By “good career”, they had actually meant further indefinite contractual employment with no benefits, on a job that they have described as “seasonal”, which was their official excuse for her contractual status (despite exceeding the 6 month period for regularization as recommended by law).  In addition, my friend learned that this practice was not consistent for all employees.  Some employees whose family shared the same church as management were actually immediately regularized, with no probationary period.  Some are having contractual status while also enjoying the benefits of regular employees.  Meanwhile, my friend met a fellow Catholic in the organization who has worked there for a couple of years on a string of short-term contracts with no benefits.  It was obvious that Catholics in the organization, while ‘tolerated’, were marginalized for their half-hearted compliance with the majority’s religious practices. While one might say that this contract inconsistency is typical of other secular organizations, I find that these discriminatory practices (which, BTW, included flat-out lying to employees’ faces) are even more damning to an organization spouting Jesus talk eight hours a day.  I thought Jesus judged dishonest, unfair people!  Apparently he only judges the gays.

What was interesting to me was the effect of this type of environment on a person who actually believes in God.  My friend told me that she actually feels like she has started to dislike God and Jesus and all that she thought it stood for, just because her officemates have fully bastardized any meaning left in it.  How could anyone feel any affinity towards a concept that now stands for judgment, hate, dishonesty, and trite, petty rules?  She described to me a hive-mind environment of people trying to out-Jesus each other with memorized bible quotes and disapproval of immoral behavior (and cheesy jokes about pastors), where people with different or dissenting beliefs hide their true colors and actually have to communicate covertly their opinions and lack of interest in ‘finding Jesus in their lives’.  It seemed like a same-Jesus-shit-different-groundhog-day scenario, which her anecdotes being more ridiculous by the day. Who knows even if these so-called Christian people actually believe what they say, or if they’re just pretending to be like this for their careers?  What is sure is that if you go all-out with your Christian-ness, you will be rewarded by Jesus (and by Jesus, I mean the bosses of this company).

Overall, she has described to me a daily experience of detachment, a little fear and a growing desire to stick immorality in their faces.  We have discussed choosing the most immoral cartoon character for Kris Kringle, or the best workplace to say she transferred to when she resigns (HR manager for a gay bar), or inserting funny, sarcastic remarks in her daily prayer.  Why did she accept it in the first place, you ask? Because the situation was too crazy-bizarre for the imagination to fathom (esp. for a person who doesn’t interact with these types of people).  Why didn’t she leave immediately?  Because she needed the cash, and her contract was supposedly short-term anyway.  Why is she still there even if her contract has ended?  Because they wouldn’t let her leave. She is planning on leaving the company soon despite the uncertain job market out there because she can’t take it anymore.

I described this experience so that we may reflect and Thank God for our secular workplaces and freedom to express ourselves in our own little corner of the internet. (I’m kidding about the God part, of course)  To some of you, all religions are created equal (as in, equally false); to some, they are not.  However, the freedom to actually choose one or none is sacred and a workplace where it is mandatory to practice only one religion is not ideal.

Storytelling is one form of art that transcends medium. Whether in books, ballads, plays, or movies – even in sculptures, photographs or paintings – someone is telling a story. Someone is talking of life. Not Life on a grand scale but life in bits and pieces; seemingly mundane moments that give us glimpses of a bigger picture. Fleeting and ephemeral, once captured by an artist they are immortalized and frozen in time, lending themselves to be shared with other lives as well.

While different stories have vastly different scopes, the time it takes to tell a story somehow falls within a relatively narrow range. Most books have a few hundred pages and most movies last a few hours, but the stories they tell could either cover decades of world history – or a single eventful night in the lives of two people. And yet a beautifully told story is never a page too long, never a minute too short. It’s just as it should be.

Since storytelling time is limited, the story has to be compromised between breadth and depth. Naturally, epic tales cannot get too much into the individual lives of the characters, just as love stories seldom wander far beyond the interaction of a few people. But the storyteller somehow manages to piece the two together in perfect balance of breadth and depth, the former a background of the latter. And while not every second of the story can be told, the storyteller speeds up time and slows it down at just the right moments so that precious minutes are neither wasted nor skimped.

Imagine telling the story of a certain civilization and how it came about. If one were not to miss out a tiny detail, the story could not be finished within the listener’s lifetime, and so the trick is to secure only the salient points. On the other hand, a story that takes place within a shorter time than it takes to read it has to have something really interesting to sustain the reader’s attention. If every single moment, every spoken word is worthy of mention, telling the story will take just as long as the story itself. Now put every deep emotion, every unspoken thought, every subtle gesture, and there you have a story bigger than how it would have been in real life.

* * * * *

This article was originally published at innerminds.wordpress.com. I re-posted it here to encourage other writers and storytellers to contribute to the FF blog, which seems to be having fewer new articles lately. In the FF Facebook Group, Ryan has been posting mostly articles from Friendly Atheist instead, so please write up guys. 

Twelve freethinkers plus the one holding the camera. Not bad for a first meet-up.

This is Harley’s P90 burger. That patty is almost 2 inches thick, made of pure lean beef, flame-broiled of course. They have a great homemade hot sauce and a nice mustard.

More beer please…

Introductions and journeys…

More food…this is Lydon’s baked scallops:

That is Sam at the center, the owner of Harley Blvd. Motor Cafe.

And Sam was kind enough to let our banner stay on his wall…

What can I say? It was awesome guys. Can’t wait for the next one.

The premise: a problem

It has been said over and over again, as a defense or even as a backlash, by religious men and women that religion has a curative and comforting utility to humankind like no other. It has also been said over and over again by secular people and rationalists that however comforting some belief or idea is, it nevertheless adds nothing to the truth value of the belief or idea. That secularism offers nothing more than a skinny comfort blanket amidst the cold and pouring rain at best. That may well be true, and indeed it leads me to believe that it all boils down to what we really want: happiness or the truth. Happiness may not necessarily be true or what’s really happening, and having the truth may not necessarily make one happy. This conflict reminds me of the doggedly proverbial “The truth hurts” and The X-Files’ “The truth is out there”. This conflict also reminds me of the struggle in the movie The Matrix, wherein to know the truth, one has to be ‘removed’ from the confines of the complacency brought about by the virtual reality of the machines who have taken over. Once one has learned the truth, which involves living as a fugitive or freedom fighter wearing mostly ragged clothing near the center of the Earth, one is left to wonder if it would have been better to have stayed in the fantasy reality, even though it’s all make-believe. I guess it wouldn’t be so surprising considering the fact that human beings, like almost every other animal, are predisposed to follow what is certain to help in the continuation of its species. After all, speaking in ageological time scale, homo sapiens are but cells that have just fertilized, and are beginning to undergo cell division to form a larger animal.

The question

So then, if you will humor my ponderings, what could secularism possibly offer as an answer to one of the most profound questions we humans have asked since the dawn of our consciousness: What is death or what happens when we die? Do we survive death in some form or is there nothing after it?

Setting the mood

Quite a mouthful of questions, and ones that have plagued thinkers or philosophers for centuries upon centuries. But I think before I even begin to give my answer to those questions, a little ‘mood setter’ is in need. Some questions are too frank or too blunt in manner, which sometimes has the effect on the listener or the questioner of making one lose focus on the more relevant and apparent details. The mood setting quote is from the book Unweaving The Rainbow by prof.Richard Dawkins. It’s his reply to people who keep on ranting or complaining or fussing about their deaths. Everytime I read it, especially when I watched and heard prof. Dawkins read it with emotions in a talk at UC Berkeley, I cannot help but be moved by it’s message, wrapped around in romantic scientific prose:

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.

And continuing this passage in his talk:

We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state, from which the vast majority have never stirred.

Makes one (or at least myself) wonder if we even have the right to feel anger or guilt or even sadness by our undeniable demise.

Physics on death

An episode of The X-Files has agent Mulder talking to agent Scully about starlight. He says that starlight as we see it here on Earth is already billions of years old, and has traveled unimaginable distances (light-years). Stars that are now long dead, but whose light is still traveling through time. Mulder continues that perhaps that’s where souls (our souls, after we die) reside. Today, we know from physicists that the premise is correct (that starlight is very old and still keeps on traveling), but we can’t be certain (or perhaps not at all) about the succeeding statement of Mulder (about souls). Scully, Mulder’s partner, continues Mulder’s statements by saying that the light doesn’t die, and that maybe that’s the only thing that never does. Speaking in a purely Einsteinian fashion when dealing with spirituality and such, perhaps our ’souls’ do reside in starlight, and in that sense our ’souls’ do continue on forever.

Mulder’s statement

Taking the first statement into consideration, that ’souls’ do reside in starlight, to be technical about it, we can probably say that it’s actually not starlight in our case but ‘planetlight’. We know that in order to see an object we have to shine light on it, after which the light bounces back, illuminating the object, back to our eyes. In the same sense, the Sun illuminates Earth at daytime, and at nighttime the Moon or our electrical/electronic devices light us up and our surroundings. In that sense light is shined on us, and so it is reflected back, which eventually reaches outer space and into the vast cosmos. In this way our ’souls’ which in this case means our whole lifetime under some source of light, is ‘framed’ in a ‘wave’ of light cruising the universe. If there are intelligent lifeforms out there in the universe and they can’t come here due to technological constraints (same as our case), once they try viewing our part of the universe, what they’ll be seeing is planetlight (which is reflected starlight, the star being our Sun or light from some other source) containing us, our lifetimes, and our history. What they’ll be seeing of course depends on many factors such as how far they are from us, how sensitive their viewing instruments are, what time they tried viewing us, among other things.

Scully’s statement

As for Scully’s statement, that starlight doesn’t die, technically speaking that can be true, since as long as photons don’t get smashed or absorbed, they keep on travelling in space, most likely till the edge of the universe and (our) time itself. However there is a limit to how long light can travel for one to be able to ‘reconstruct’ the data (in this case our ’souls’) it carries with it. This is because as light travels, similar to a wave, it spreads across time and space. As the light spreads, at some point in the universe very distant from the light source, it will be nearly to absolutely impossible to know what information that light brought with it. In a word, the light will be too ’stretched’ to make any sense out of it. This is similar to research being done on the Big bang. We are in an epoch of the universe where we can still study ‘cosmic background radiation’ (electromagnetic radiation, same as light) leading back to the Big bang. If we were a few millions of years late, we might not be able to analyze the data that comes along with the cosmic background radiation. And so Scully is partially correct since light can possibly not die, but the information in the light may become lost to us or someone viewing us.

Finally, physics on immortality

In essence, our ’souls’, most of our memories, achievements, feats, and other things in our light-stricken lives continue to propagate into inter-stellar space. The propagation duration many orders of magnitude longer than any of our lifetimes combined, which could be treated as practically infinity, and in some ways, immortality.

Originally posted last September 16, 2008 at f241vc15.wordpress.com.

“A cheerful poverty is an honorable state.” - Epicurus

I have to be honest, it is hard to catch up a freethinker’s lifestyle. Most freethinkers here in the Philippines belong to the class “A” affluent families and as a person belonging to the…eh down right dirty, I’m having a hard time coping with it. As a freethinker I have to be realistic and here’s the fact: LIFE SUCKS!

We always held our meetings in this classy mall, surrounded by stores and restaurants that only the privilege can enjoy. We do it in Starbuck…WOAH! A cup of coffee in Starbuck cost …eh is it 175.00 Pesos ($3.74) per cup? I can only afford a coffee in a styrophor cup worth 10.00 Pesos (that 21 cents for you American readers). They eat sandwiches and novelty foods I only dream of eating, they have gadgets like cell phones with videos, Nintendo Wii, Videocams, sleek cars, cute dogs, beautiful and sexy girllfriends…the whole shebang!! Just think what that does to me? Boy…if you want to start feeling sorry to yourself and indulge in self-pity.

Many of these guys are armed with shelves full of books! There are those who owned about 400 to 600 volumes. Well…I can only dream about it. Being financially deficient is a hindrance. I lack the finances to buy books. And to top it all, most freethinkers’ books (or May I say “all”) are foreign made. Geewizz! Foreign books are too costly! Thank Darwin that I have a photographic memory when reading books. There is this bookstore here in Manila, yep Power Books…that is the name of the shop. Luckily, for me, this bookstore allows shoppers to read the books off their shelves.

Sometimes I feel that I should stop attending this “yuppie club”, fearing that people might think that I’m just a “pabigat” (weighting them down financially) or worst, that I’m a freeloader.

Therefore, it made me thinking. Is freethought only for the affluent? Is freethought synonymous with people who graduated from prestigious schools and universities, to those who are successful in life, for those people with cars and are able to dine on fancy restaurants? Is freethought only a vice of well-off individuals just to exercise their bored minds? How about the poor, the destitute, the miserable and the hopeless, can they afford to be freethinkers?

I sometimes wonder why I become a freethinker in the first place?

Pragmatism is the philosophy of the poor man. He seems to believe things that have uses for him. Don’t get me wrong, my freethought was not fueled by hate of life. Life is not fair, but I do not blame it to a so-called “Supreme Intelligence”. Maybe I am a different case…one in a million perhaps. Nevertheless, not every poor people in Manila share my enthusiasm with philosophy and science.

It is impossible to philosophize with an empty stomach. Do you think a poor man will have the luxury of time and money to do some research regarding science and philosophy?

Speaking of research, books are expensive and education is too costly. Poor folks will use their resources more on food. The sad news is that majority of people in the Philippines is below poverty line, and because of the worldwide economic crisis we are now facing, it is expected to double.

In this situation, what’s use of freethought?

For some people, and especially the poor, this is where religion sets in. Religion thrives in a world of crisis. When people become desperate, they start to look and cling to any support they can find – even invisible ones. So how can you tell them that people who mastered the art of selling God are using them?

I still believe that somewhere in Payatas, Tondo or those shanties in BASECO Compound, there is a freethinker like me. He may now be writing his thoughts on a piece of paper…he doesn’t have a computer, he can’t afford it. I wonder if people in his community listen to what he says? Christians in his community may even accused him of just being angry to God for giving him a miserable life. People will not take you seriously when you are poor.

I imagine him getting his information from books that sold cheap in Recto, books that were published in the 60’s and 70’s, too obsolete in modern standards.

Does he sometimes stop from his backbreaking labor to wonder if his arguments are correct or if there’s a new idea that entered his mind? Does he also look in the Internet if he can spare P15.00 from his small salary? Does he also analyzed religious revelations if they are true? How does he handle the idea of having no after-life, with the thought that he is doom to live in a miserable existence without any means of escaping? Does he also think he’s alone?

Freethought may be expensive but thinking is priceless. Maybe that is why I keep on attending this yuppie club.

I believe that social stratification is not a hindrance especially if the Filipino freethinkers’ vision also caters love and camaraderie.

As a freethinker my goal must be realistic so I can reach my hand on a different world- the world without luxury, where false hope thrive. This is the world of the impoverished where self-pity becomes a thick haze that blocks the vision of progress. Where pragmatism narrows objective world-view, where minds are clouded by distrust and apathy and where poverty limits dreams and aspiration.

Unfortunately, there are freethinkers trapped in this kind of world, and these are freethinkers I would like to reach out to. It is a matter of cooperation within the Filipino freethinking community to reach to such sad individuals.

Math can be really fun. Seriously.

This post is the 2nd in a series of posts I’m planning to have about why math is such a beautiful, useful, and awe-inspiring subject, and that a lot of us can do math (advanced/seemingly difficult math even). Math is such an integral part of humanity since our cave dwelling days, and much more so now in most of our technology driven lives. Previously I wrote about how even advanced math, particularly advanced geometry, can be easily tackled with just your imagination. This time it’s about probability. I can just imagine some of you cringe at the thought of math, let alone probability. But I’ll try to show you that often times, logical reasoning is all that it takes to wrap your head around probabilities, even the ones that confound a lot of brilliant people, even some mathematicians themselves. In fact, we’ll end this article with a simulation of a game/game show. Not bad huh?

Continue Reading

In my first year as an atheist…well I always feel the need to debate. I don’t know…must be an ego trip or something?

That was a long time ago.

Do these debates really have some use?

In an article in a certain Freethought magazine, Prof. Richard Dawkins in an interview said something about why he rebuffs to debate Creationists. You may say that it’s spinelessness in the part of the evolutionist…Hmmmm I may even think that in my early years on atheism. But now I understand his stand.

Enter Theodore Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss. When I was a tot, I don’t have copies of Dr. Seuss books like Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham and Fox in a Sock. I only saw copies of these books in my Aunt’s house. My cousins have these books (Unfortunately, my cousin never learned anything from them – Alas! But that’s another story.) In any case, I started to understand Dr.Seuss in a later age. I thought Dr. Seuss’s stories were just nattering for little children created to sound like nursery rhymes. But inside those rhymes are gold mines of ethical issues of moral standards like tolerance, anti-discrimination and a lot more…better than what the Bible can offer.

Each story can be use to illustrate a certain aspect in one’s life. In this particular scenario, I will use the story of the Zax.

According to Dr. Seuss’s story, in the prairie of Prax resides the Zax. One is a North-going Zax and the other one is a South-going Zax. As both Zaxs walk, they soon, as expected, collide with to each other. The North-going Zax won’t budge since well…he can’t go east or west. Neither does the South-Going Zax. So they stand there at a standstill and bragging to each other that both will not move an inch for 59 years, or even if the world stand still. Well fortunately, the world didn’t stand still…only the two stubborn Zaxs.

The story illustrates a common scene between an atheist and a Christian.

I consider that believers will be as obdurate as the atheist. Both will not budge on their valued point of view. So why waste time of debate? As an atheist I only articulate the alternatives other than supernatural explanations. I will answer questions in an atheist’s opinion…but that’s it. I think that is more fruitful, compare to a volley of endless arguments.

To bicker against faith is fruitless.

I’m not saying that it’s wrong to enter on debate. But hey! Before you enter such inane squabbles, maybe it’s wiser to check the other party first. Make an effort to see if your rival will recognize your reasons. Try talking to a rock; do you think such endeavor is evocative?

Ok…not convince?

Try this as a case in point:

Christian: Everything has a cause, so God is the First Cause.
Atheist: How do you know that God is the First Cause?
Christian: Because the Bible said so in Genesis 1:1
Atheist: How do you know that the Bible is telling the truth?
Christian: Because God inspired the Bible and Jesus is the way, the truth and the light.

Now base on the example above…does it make any sense? Did the Christian clarify why God became the First Cause? If an atheist asks him why, Christians often shift the dialogue to another topic.
Yet that’s how Christian vs. atheist discussions always ends up.

Also, I notice that god believers will not recognize any explanations other what they read in the Bible and what they want to accept as true to protect their faith. I knew this man in Luneta who was too mulish to understand that a rainbow is produce when sun light passes through rain drops and as these water acts as a prism, they break the white light to bring out the colorful spectrum that creates the rainbow. No siree! He trusted what the Bible says about rainbows. He believed that the rainbow is God’s sign as a promise that he will never again obliterate humanity by a flood.

Try explaining to him the scientific cause of a rainbow and he will just laugh or worst, he’ll start name-calling. That’s because they believed that the Bible is the only source of facts…even scientific or historical data. Yet a book that says mental illnesses are cause by demonic spirits, well… anything and everything is possible. I suppose that’s why a lot of Bible-believers are too daunted with science

There is also this guy, who blows his own horn about his grasp with the Bible yet up till now doesn’t accept the definition of matter. Science defines matter as anything that occupies space and has mass. He on the other hand, describes matter as everything that occupies space and rejected the word “mass” in the definition because he wants God to be composed of matter…to make the concept of god believable. Well as they say, try putting water inside a close jar whose lid will not open and what will you achieve?

Lately I notice that Christians are now entering this site…maybe to have some discussions and debate about…the Christian belief system. I promised myself not to get occupied to this kind of futility. To personally posts comments just to engage or to answer rubbish is not worth my time.

Prof. Dawkins have said his reasons why it’s not worth anything to answer Creationists challenge. Maybe it’s also time for us freethinkers to think about what Prof. Dawkins have said. What’s new anyway? Christians are still singing the same old tune.

Greetings my fellow Padawans,
Many Christians are cashing in the Star Wars universe, connecting their belief with Star Wars terminologies like “The Force”, “Jedi”, etc.

Well… I really do not know anything about Christian business strategies and tactics but I know something about the Star Wars Universe.

So hold and get ready ‘coz we’ll be going hyperspace!!!

Point 1: Is “The Force” God?
Answer: No

Allot of believer says that The Force is the same as God to connect Star Wars and justify it to be the same with their belief. But Master Obi-Wan has already told us what The Force is.

The Force was a metaphysical, binding, and ubiquitous power that held enormous importance for both the Jedi and Sith monastic orders. The Force was viewed in many different aspects, including, but not limited to, the light side, the dark side, the Unifying Force, and the Living Force. The first two aspects were concerned with the moral compass of the Force in its various manifestations. The light side of the Force was the facet aligned with compassion, courage, healing, and benevolence, while the dark side of the Force was the element aligned with hatred, fear, aggression, and malevolence. The latter two aspects were defined by prominent Jedi philosophies: The Unifying Force essentially embraced space and time in its entirety while the Living Force dealt with the energy of living things. Though the Force was categorized in this way, there were no specific abilities or powers that were only usable by a follower of a different path of the Force; the Force partially existed inside the life forms that used it, and drew energy from their emotions.

In Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the original Star Wars film, the Force is first described by Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi as an energy field created by all living things, that surrounds and penetrates living beings and binds the galaxy together.

He said that The Force,
“…is an energy field generated by living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.”

So, it’s an energy field generated or created by living things. It is created. The Force is generated by all living things and is an inextricable part of life itself. Nevertheless there exist inanimate objects and places which are strong in one side of the Force or the other. The Force exists in all life, and when great amounts of life pass away, a disturbance is created, running through the Force like a scream which only Force-adept can hear.

The Force can enhance natural physical and mental abilities, including strength and accuracy. Manifestations of the Force, which were mentally-based abilities and tapped through the practitioner’s willpower, could take many forms, and included telepathy, psychokinesis, and enhanced physical and metaphysical perception. The Force could be used to bend the will of weak-minded beings and guide an adept’s body. Users who were very good at using the Force could cease merely reacting to their surroundings and actually predict events in the very near future, such as the next blow in a duel.

“The Force is what gives the Jedi his power.”

So it say that the Force can be manipulate and use to one’s advantage. But if you are not purge with elements that leads to its dark side, then it cannot be controlled and become addictive, which leads to curruption.

Also, notice that the Force is not worshipped. There is not temple for the Force, only an academy that is located in Corruscant.

Point 2: The Force has two sides.
Unlike the Judeo-Christian God, the Force is expressed with two opposites, it has an evil side but within the same nature. More like the Yin-Yang of Taoism.

The evil in the Force is not about temptations and sin. It’s about discipline and balance.

Master Yoda is very clear on that matter. “A Jedi’s strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side! Anger,
fear, aggression – the dark side of the Force are they. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan’s apprentice.”

“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

The dark side of the Force comes from the hate, vengeance, malice in all living things, one’s own will to power, ego, and selfishness. They must be purge from your life to achieve discipline and provides insight into the ethical use of the Force.

So there, I hope I shed some light on Christian mischief regarding The Force. There is nothing Christian on the Star Wars Universe. It is a mixture of Eastern mysticism and discipline with a touch of romantic chivalry and space-age adventure.

You don’t need to enroll in a Jedi Academy in Corusscant or to have a large metaclorian count to learn that.

…continued from Rabbits Part Two: Deeper Into The Forest

The man woke up with a headache. It was still light so he figured that he had slept for only a few hours. He knew he had to hurry and face that which scared him, for he did not come this far just to turn back and head out of the forest.

Still groggy, he took off his clothes and jumped into the stream. The sudden shock of cold water jolted his senses back to life. Reinvigorated, he got out of the water, put his clothes back on and mounted his horse.

Part of him did want to turn back, for what he was about to do he found distasteful. But he knew he had to do it, otherwise he would never find peace with himself in his new life outside the forest, and the only way for that to happen was for him to have closure in his old life.

Riding as fast as the fading light allowed, his heart too was racing because he knew that he was nearing his destination. And soon enough, he saw the clearing.

Slowing down, his chest felt heavy once more. More than that, he felt guilt, and sadness, because when he saw his village, his people, his home, he knew that he no longer lived there. Then as if that wasn’t enough, he felt a hopeless despair, because he knew in his heart that he had never really lived there at all.

He brought his horse to a walk as he entered the village of the Fenek, or what he secretly and mockingly called “The Rabbit People”.

He was first greeted by his thirteen year-old cousin Kannello, who was already running towards him. “Ghaqli!” the boy cried. “It’s Ghaqli! Ghaqli!”

Ghaqli smiled when he saw the boy, now almost a young man. He could still remember Kannello as a small kid the last time he saw him. How time had passed. “Kannello! My Ku Kannello! How you’ve grown!”

“You’re back, Ku Ghaqli! You’re finally back!” And Ghaqli alighted his horse and hugged his cousin. Kannello quickly said, “Come, come, surely the chief wants to see you.”

“And how is Chief Ka Boxxla?”

“Oh, he is well. He had been waiting everyday for your return. It’s been two years but he knew that you would come back to take your place among the Fenek. We missed your cooking. The new village cook, the one who took over from you, uses a white crystalline powder. We don’t like it because it puts too much flavor and the taste seems so artificial, and there was an increase in the number of dog poisoning and a decrease in sexual activity.”

Hmmm…missed me for my cooking, my natural way of cooking that promotes good health. You rabbits. All you care about is food and sex. No wonder why I left. “Is that so? That’s good, except for the dogs. Be sure not to feed them anything prepared by the village cook. If you can’t cook on your own that’s fine, because dogs eat raw meat.”

“But what about us? We don’t eat raw meat!”

“That’s why you have your village cook. His cooking is good for you, good for this village, good for this entire ecosystem.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying, Ku Ghaqli. Could you please explain?”

“Ku Kannello, better take me to Ka Boxxla. I need to talk to him in private before I address the rest of the village. My time here is very short.”

“But Ku Ghaqli…”

“Take me to Ka Boxxla, Ku Kannello. Please, let us hurry.” Kannello hesitated, but seeing the urgency in Ghaqli’s eyes, he relented and took his long-lost cousin to the chief’s house.

While they walked across the village, his old neighborhood, Ghaqli noticed that nothing much had changed especially in what he felt, or more importantly, what he did not feel around the place. He could not understand why no one else left the village, but being a fair man, he was never quick to judge. Still, he knew with all honesty that he could not live in this place for one more day.

“Ghaqli!”, cried the chief as he embraced his long-lost tribesman. I knew you’d come back! I thought it would be sooner though, much sooner than this. Nevertheless, you’re here and that’s all that matters. And it isn’t too late because my daughter Fidda is still turning twenty. She was seventeen when you left, and had you married her then, you would have had kids by now.”

“Ka Boxxla, please, let us not talk about the might-have-beens. I have a graver matter to discuss.”

“I see. What do we need to talk about then?”

“I am leaving here for good. I can’t live here anymore. I don’t want to live here. I do not feel alive in here.”

“What are you talking about? Can’t you see how happy we are, here together?”

How happy you are, here together. “I am sorry Ka Boxxla, I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, and I never mean to insult you, but whatever it is that keeps you happy here, I do not see it, do not feel it. In fact, I never once experienced it in all the years that I lived here.”

The chief bowed his head and wiped a single tear from his eye. “How sad to see you leave the village again, and for good, you say?” Then Ka Boxxla lifted his head and looked hard at Ghaqli. “But infinitely sadder still is to know how empty you had been all your life here. I am sure you have your reasons, and whatever is there outside the forest that caught your heart, we respect that. You will have to explain – not justify – just explain, that to the whole village though, as a courtesy. They deserve that from you.”

“Of course. That is my intention.”

“Very well then my dear Ghaqli. But you will have to tell your story to the village tomorrow, for tonight we shall feast! You arrived at the right time, because a traveling merchant had just traded a cartload of seafood for three of our cows. You shall do the cooking tonight, so the village can savor great food one last time.”

“What kinds of seafood? Are they fresh?”

“Lobsters, scallops, squids, and some very nice but very rare fish I don’t even know what it’s called. The trader said they were caught this morning, and they were transported all the way here covered in sea salt. ”

“Then have some volunteers wash them down with fresh water, and others to prepare a fire – make that four fires side by side in a single line, and a pot above each fire.  And I need four people to help me in the preparation.”

“Very well”, said the chief, and barked out his orders. Men and women went about to wash the salt off the seafood and build the fires. After a while four women came to Ghaqli, each carrying a large basket, one for each kind of seafood.

Ghaqli taught them how clean and prepare the shells, shellfish, and fish, and when he was satisfied that they got it right he went to the village garden to get some herbs and spices.

When he came back with a bagful of leaves, roots, barks, and seeds, all the seafood had already been cleaned and readied for cooking because the other villagers had helped. The fires were now also burning, heating the pots hanging above them. Satisfied, Ghaqli instructed the women to put the seafood into their separate pots. Next he crushed some leaves and dropped them in two of the pots but not in the others. He did the same with the roots, barks, and seeds. No two pots had the same combination of the herbs and spices, and yet the smells from all four pots seemed to blend perfectly, whetting the appetites of the villagers.  He took two large wooden spoons and stirred the pots two at a time and covered them, letting the ingredients simmer for a few minutes.

“I need some of our village wine,” he told Ka Boxxla.

“Bring out the inbid!” shouted the chief, and several young men arrived, one of them Kannello, carrying jugs of inbid, the famous village wine originally concocted by Ghaqli himself.

Ghaqli took one jug with each hand and poured them into the four pots, but not evenly, as he filled some pots more than the others. Then he took two more jugs and poured them both into the pot filled with fish, and loosely covered all of them.

Now the vapors escaping into the air were driving the villagers crazy, and Ghaqli suggested that all of them first have a cup of wine to wash the tongue so that no stale taste may corrupt the flavors of the dishes. They obliged, and after a drink they lined up for the pots and started to feast on lobsters, scallops, squids, and some very nice rare fish. Ghaqli told them to wash each bite with wine especially when shifting between two kinds of seafood so that the flavors don’t overlap with one another, otherwise he might as well have cooked it all in one big pot. Again they obliged, for they knew that no one else knew more about food than Ghaqli. And how they ate and drank.

Around midnight when everyone was full and a bit drunk, some a bit more than the others, Ghaqli asked Ka Boxxla if he could address the village now.

“Can’t this wait until tomorrow morning?” said the chief. “We are having a great feast, all of our people think that you came home for good, and now you’re going to ruin it by telling them that you only came home to finally say goodbye? How cruel could you be?”

“Which is crueler,” replied Ghaqli, “to tell them now or tomorrow? If I tell them now at their drunken state their festive mood will weaken the blow. If I tell them tomorrow morning when they are hungover, the headache will make any bad news seem like the end of the world.”

“You have a point there, my wise friend.” And Ka Boxxla called the attention of the villagers. “Our friend Ghaqli has something say to all of us.” And with that he sat down and patted Ghaqli on the back, urging him to speak.

Ghaqli hesitated for a second, and hesitated for real, because although he already made up his mind on leaving this village for good, he realized that a very small part of him actually longed for this place, for these people. Then he thought of his life outside the forest, and how he felt so much more alive out there.

He took a cup and poured wine into it, and he drank deep and drank it all. He put the cup down, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and said, “My friends, I am very thankful for this great feast that we have all prepared. This is a great night, and how I wish all nights were like this.

“But my friends, we all know that all nights cannot be like this, no matter how we may wish it to be so.  And now it is with deep regret that I tell you that this will be the last night that I will sharing with you.”

The villagers gasped, and Fidda, the chief’s daughter to whom Ghaqli was betrothed, shouted “No!”, but Ka Boxxla hushed them up. “Please let Ghaqli finish,” he said, and nodded to Ghaqli.

Ghaqli nodded back, and said, “Tomorrow I shall no longer be with you. At the break of dawn I shall be heading out of the forest, back to the place where I now live, my new home.”

“But why?” asked Fidda. “Aren’t you happy here with us? What could be there outside the forest that you would choose over us?”

“Fidda, my dear Fidda, you wouldn’t understand. Even if I told you, even if I took you out there to see for yourself, you still wouldn’t understand, because you have to be me to see things through my own eyes.”

“But Ghaqli…”

“Fidda!” Ka Boxxla cut her off. “Everyone, please, let us respect Ghaqli’s decision.”

Fidda wept, and Ghaqli’s heart melted. He poured another cup of wine and drank, and noticed how his feelings were starting to numb, and he was thankful for that.

“Goodbye Fidda. Goodbye all of you. This pains me more than you could imagine. But I am just not happy here anymore.”

Everyone was sad, and Fidda continued crying. Then Ka Boxxla said, “Come on everyone. Let us all drink some more wine. Ghaqli is leaving, but that is his choice, and we cannot compel him to stay, because it is so much sadder to hold a man whose heart is far away.”

Everyone thought of what Ka Boxxla had said, including Fidda, and they all refilled their cups and drank more wine. And after a while they began to accept the reality of Ghaqli’s leaving, and slowly the spirit of gloom lifted from the air, and they continued to eat and drink through the night.

Ghaqli sat by the fire, cup in hand, and took a long look at his villagers, at Kannello, at Ka Boxxla, and finally at Fidda, who stared back at him and made an attempt to smile amid the tears.

And Ghaqli smiled back, but mostly he smiled to himself, because he knew that he was now truly free. He filled his cup once more, almost to the brim, and he drank.

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…continued from Rabbits

The man woke up at dawn.  He was a little lightheaded but his body was rejuvenated by sleep. The campfire was already out but the embers were still smoldering. He added a few twigs and the flame came back to life.

He took out a small kettle and filled it with water from his canteen. He unwrapped a piece of cloth and from it grabbed half a handful of tea leaves and dropped them into the vessel. Using two damp branches, he held the kettle over the fire to brew the tea.

He poured the hot brown liquid into a metal cup and drank. His mind began to clear and he readied himself to continue the journey. He washed his face with water and chewed on some fresh mint leaves.

He checked his horse and saw that it too had a good rest and was already munching on some grasses, seemingly preparing for the journey ahead. He petted its face and it responded with a soft contented neigh. After putting out the fire and packing his things, he mounted his horse and rode along.

As they trotted he noticed, or more likely felt, something different. He knew it was not the light although it was darker than yesterday since he was going deeper into the forest. There was something else, something unsettling that he could not describe. He could feel a certain heaviness in the air, a pervading gloom. But little did he know – or perhaps he just refused to acknowledge – that the air was fine, and that the heaviness was in his heart.

He dug his heels deeper into the sides of his horse and it ran faster. He took his weight off the saddle and transferred it all to the stirrups, leaning forward as he did so, willing the horse to give more speed. As the animal hurried its pace, the man bounced along to the rhythm of the ride, feeling the muscles of his own legs burn from the smooth rocking motion, as if it was he who was making the powerful strides.

Sweat rolled down his neck and he felt good. It was as if he could run away from whatever dark force that was weighing down on him. He closed his eyes and for a few seconds he felt at peace, and he smiled.

Satisfied, he opened his eyes and sat back on the saddle, releasing the pressure from his heels, and the horse slowed down. The heaviness in the air was gone, and his head had cleared. He thought of the reasons for this journey, of the task at hand. And with his renewed sense of purpose, even the path seemed to brighten amid the shadows.

He stopped when he saw a stream and got down to drink from it. As he was swallowing the water from his hand, the edge of his vision caught a quick glimmer and from his instincts he knew that it was a fish swimming upstream to spawn. He went back to his horse to get an old shirt and tore it. He tied the edges of the cloth to a pair of branches to make a net. Then he waded into the stream and waited for another fish. Soon enough there was one and he caught it with his makeshift net. He took out his knife and gutted the fish, cleaning it in the rushing water.

He got his iron pan and washed it in the stream and set it down. He proceeded to fillet the fish and put it inside the pan, then sliced it into thin strips. From his pouch he took a small bottle of well-aged, mellowed soy sauce which he sprinkled on the fish, and a horseradish root which he finely grated with his knife. He fashioned chopsticks from twigs, and using them to pick up a piece of the seasoned fish, he began to eat.

As soon as the first piece entered his mouth and landed on his tongue, the first thing he noticed was how soft and succulent it was, and it melted when he pushed it against his palate, releasing its creamy taste. The fish was as fresh as it could be, and spawning fish always contained lots of fat. Then the horseradish burst with its pungent aroma, rushing into his sinuses. He breathed in and closed his eyes as a few teardrops slipped from their corners. He chewed slowly, savoring all the flavors as they blended in his mouth, then swallowed. He got a bottle of home-made rice wine from one of the many pouches strapped to his horse and took a sip to wash down the fish. Then with his improvised chopsticks he picked up another piece and continued to eat slowly, enjoying the meal with every bite and every sip.

As he finished the fish and the wine (it was a large fish and he needed all the wine to wash it down), he felt full and a little drunk, so he decided to take a short nap. He sat beside the stream and leaned his back against a rock, and soon fell asleep.

To be concluded…

Rabbits Part Three: The Clearing

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Once upon a time a man road a horse into the forest. The canopy of treetops was thin at first and the path was bright, but slowly it darkened even as the sun was just rising.

The man stopped when he saw a small but clean pond of water, alighted from his horse and approached it. The water was so clear it sparkled. He got down to his knees, scooped with his hand and drank, savoring the purest liquid, invigorating because it was living water, never been contained in any vessel made by man. But then he filled his canteen and pulled his horse towards the pond. The animal drank while the man splashed water to his face and neck.

Both man and beast now refreshed and contented, they continued deeper into the forest, carefully treading in the dim light. The sun was now at its zenith, and even the forest could not totally block its light. The forest was beautiful, with trees all around, their tops racing towards the sky. There were no shrubs or small trees because in order to thrive, plants need sunlight. Hence, although the sky was totally blanketed, the path was wide since the big trees stood several feet from each other.

They rode a little faster this time, taking advantage of the noontime sun because when it began to set it would be too dark to travel. They stopped for a quick lunch of dried meat, grapes, three types of cheese, rye bread, and home-made wine for the man, and fresh green grasses for the horse. They continued on their journey, observing the surroundings change into deeper, mellower colors with the dimming of the light.

Alas, they had to stop while it was still bright enough to search for firewood. After gathering several armfuls of dry twigs and branches, the man carefully but expertly arranged them to make a fire. He took out his matches and lit up a few thin twigs as primer, carefully nursing the small flame, adding just the right amount of wood, because too little would waste the heat while too much would smother the flame. Slowly the flame grew into a steady fire, and with the way he arranged the firewood, the fire would last for a few hours untended, and he had enough extra wood to last the whole night.

He was not yet hungry for dinner because his muscles were still tensed from the journey, and that was fine because he needed some time to hunt for fresh meat. He saw a rabbit several yards to his left, and in a swift but smooth arc he took his bow, fixed an arrow on the string and pulled while aiming at the rabbit, and with a tiny flick of a few fingers the arrow left the bow in a quick flight straight to the rabbit’s heart. It died almost instantly. He walked over to retrieve his kill, brought out his knife and proceeded to clean and prepare it for cooking.

Placing the rabbit meat in an iron pan, he rubbed it with salt and pepper which he always carried inside a pouch along with herbs, spices, and various seasonings.  Next he took a pinch of a brown-red course powder and sprinkled it on the meat. Then he covered the pan and put it in the fire, the flames enveloping it and sealing it shut, keeping all the flavors locked in.

Inside the pan the rabbit meat began to roast, the seasonings working their way into the flesh and its juices, blending the flavors into a splendid feast. The man took out his bottle of home-made wine and took a swig, rolling the wine inside his mouth for a few seconds to savor it before swallowing. Then he held two small twigs like chopsticks to uncover the pan and poured some wine into the dish. Instantly it sizzled, filling the cold night air with a heavenly smell, and he covered it again.

After few more a minutes his meal was ready. Using a pair of firewood, he carefully took the pan from the fire and laid it on a flat rock. Vapor rose as he lifted the lid, intoxicating him with the anticipation of gastronomic delight. Using his knife he took a piece of meat and brought it to his mouth. The moment it touched his tongue he knew that he was having good meat, and as he chewed, the different flavors began to emerge, allowing him to savor them one by one. He slowly swallowed the meat and washed it down with wine, and all the flavors blended and exploded in his mouth. He repeated the whole process several times until the pan was clean and the wine bottle was half-empty. He lit a hand-rolled cigar as he continued to drink the rest of the wine, leaning back against a rock and watching the flames, and he started to recall a story he heard when he was a kid.

Long ago, the great Frith made the world. He made all the stars, and the world lived among the stars. Frith made all the animals and birds, and at first made them all the same. Now among the animals was El-Ahrairah, the prince of rabbits. He had many friends, and they all ate grass together.

But after a time, the rabbits wandered everywhere, multiplying and eating as they went. Then Frith said to El-Ahrairah, “Prince Rabbit, if you cannot control your people, I shall find ways to control them.” But El-Ahrairah would not listen and said to Frith, “My people are the strongest in the world.” This angered Frith, and he determined to get the better of El-Ahrairah. He gave a present to every animal and bird, making each one different from the rest. When the fox came, and others, like the dog, and cat, hawk, and weasel, to each of them, Frith gave a fierce desire to hunt and slave the children of El-Ahrairah.

Then El-ahrairah knew that Frith was too clever for him and he was frightened. He had never before seen the black rabbit of death. He thought that the fox and the weasel were coming with Frith and he turned to the face of the hill and began to dig. He dug a hole, but he had dug only a little of it when Frith came over the hill alone. And he saw El-ahrairah’s bottom sticking out of the hole and the sand flying out in showers as the digging went on. He called out, “My friend, have you seen El-ahrairah, for I wish to give him a gift?” “No”, answered El-ahrairah, without coming out, “I have not seen him.” So Frith said, “Come out of that hole and I will bless you instead.” “No, I cannot,” said El-ahrairah, “I am busy. The fox and the weasel are coming. If you want to bless me you can bless my bottom.”

“Very well, be it so.” Frith blessed El-ahrairah’s tail and it grew shining white and flashed like a star, and his back legs grew long and powerful, and he tore across the hill faster than any creature in the world.

Then Frith said, “All the world will be your enemy, Prince With A Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you: digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.”

And as the man finished his wine and cigar, he added more wood to the fire and unrolled a mat beside it and lay himself down. He kept thinking about the story, wondering about his people and if they will be destroyed by their own arrogance. And with that thought he drifted into fitful sleep, until the spirit of the wine finally took off the hard edges of physical and mental exertion and brought him into sweet dreamless slumber.

To be continued…

Rabbits Part Two: Deeper Into The Forest

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Nope that’s not a typo and this isn’t technically about religion or another reconversion post.  This post is about holes in space, namely black holes, wormholes, and the lesser known white holes, and their implications to the physical and metaphysical. The arrangement or flow of exposition of this article, from black to worm to white hole, will become much clearer as you read along the article. So get ready for a layman’s quick rundown on holes (cosmic ones of course), thought experiments, sci-fi love, paradoxes, and various possible implications in our lives and the universe we live in.

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